MeridianDogMississippi St. FanHome on the rangeMember since Nov 20107132 posts Online

re: Cooking hash browns to internal temp of 165Posted by MeridianDog on 3/26/13 at 9:37 am to Chair

Those are HACCP guidelines set by a lawyer committee. As long as they are fully cooked you should be ok. The worry has increased over the past few years with the increase in food born illness from vegetables that are commercially prepared for home cooking

It's not just a CYA, it's a basic food safety practice. Those potato shreds were peeled & processed in a factory, where high volume is the rule. Volume increases exposure. And with frozen foods, you can't guarantee that some person along the supply chain didn't allow the stuff to defrost and then refreeze, again increasing the potential for bacterial growth (ie, letting 'em sit on a pallet in the back of Winn Dixie while someone went on break, or you drive home took 45 minutes in August with the potatoes in your trunk).

Anyway, if you actually cook the hash browns in a skillet until they're browned, you'll well exceed 165, no need for a thermometer. Insufficient temp problems tend to arise with microwaving--often microwaved items might reach a food-safe temp in one area, yet other parts of the dish aren't fully heated.